


Dramatic Market Ride

by Tekketsu08



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Tamako Market
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22802650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tekketsu08/pseuds/Tekketsu08
Summary: When Tamako and her friends meet two young musicians who arrive at Usagiyama, nothing will go as expected during this fateful meeting thanks to a certain light music club's advisor. Reformat of To Be A Solister chapter 27 to fit a one-shot format under the Tamako Market listing, with some parts cut out and a short original ending.
Relationships: Kitashirakawa Tamako/Ooji Mochizou
Kudos: 1





	Dramatic Market Ride

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to find out the context for this story, then please read my Hibike! Euphonium/Pokémon crossover fic To Be A Solister, which can be found on my profile.

Walking into Usagiyama, Kumiko could smell the familiar flavour of mochi tickle her nose before she felt another person bump into her, though she didn’t fall to the ground.

“S- Sorry!” the newcomer apologized, picking herself up. Kumiko looked at her and saw that the young woman standing in front of her had a shorter stature and black hair tied into two short twintails held together by ornaments that looked like mochi despite being a little older. “I’m really in a pickle right now!”

Though she was wearing a white hoodie with a blue stripe across the chest, comfy looking jeans, and aquamarine flats, what made her stand out was the morbidly obese Sirfetch’d that had just fluttered its way back up onto her head.

Staring at the supremely deformed Sirfetch’d, Kumiko and Reina’s weirdness session was interrupted by the young woman speaking again. “I’m sorry if this inconveniences you, but I really need some extra hands to help me right now! It’s really urgent!”

“Calm down. We’ve still got a lot of time, so we can help you.” Reina offered, noting that the young woman seemed more like a kid. “But you haven’t told us your name yet.”

“Oh yeah! That’s right!” The young woman perked up. “I’m Tamako Kitashirakawa, and the Sirfetch’d resting on my head is Dela!”

“Nice to meet you fine young ladies!” Dela chirped out, sending both Kumiko and Reina into the weird zone again.

“What…” Kumiko was left speechless. Though she had seen plenty of weird things on her journey, a talking Sirfetch’d seemed to have topped the list right then and there.

“I said, nice to meet you.” Dela reiterated, completely unaware that the people he was addressing were completely shocked at his ability to speak.

“Dela, it looks like you’ve scared them quite a bit.” Tamako noted. “They most likely haven’t seen a talking Pokémon before, y’know?”

“Well, Pokémon who are capable of human speech are quite rare,” Reina commented, wanting to know more about this strange occurrence. “Chatot can mimic some phrases, and there are reports of a talking Meowth, but this is the first time I’ve seen a Sirfetch’d who’s able to do so. Speaking of which, where are your lance and shield?”

“Ah! You must be talking about my royal regalia!” Though his expression and tone of voice still remained chipper, there was a tinge of sadness in Dela’s mannerisms. “...I lost them on the way here from-”

Dela’s next words were cut off by a log suddenly slamming into him from behind, sending him tumbling off Tamako’s head onto the floor. Alarmed, Tamako bent down to check on Dela’s condition as a Timburr retrieved the log it had thrown, followed by the arrival of three other people.

“Tamako, there you are.” a girl with brown hair blandly commented. She was wearing a black dress with large green polka dots under a yellow sweater, pink tights, and grey fur boots. “Sorry about my Timburr knocking Dela off your head. His lamenting was getting too noisy again.”

“We’ve been looking for you all over!” a girl with blonde hair exclaimed. Wearing a brown jacket over a lime-green collared shirt, pink shorts, and brown boots with blue thigh-high socks, she seemed to be the most energetic person in the group, an Audino by her side mimicking her gestures.

“Are you alright? Did you run into some trouble?” a boy with light brown hair enquired, his voice having a more affectionate tone to it. Though he was wearing a purple shirt under a maroon hoodie, light grey pants, and olive-green sneakers, what made him stand out to Kumiko and Reina was that he bore more than a passing resemblance to Shuichi.

Not that Reina needed more reminders such a person existed.

With a Minior floating next to him, the boy went to Tamako’s side and took her hand, both of them visibly blushing as he did so, helping her off the ground. Even after she was up, the two didn’t seem to show signs of breaking apart anytime soon.

Though everyone present was slightly affected by this bizarre tension, no one said a word for fear of disrupting this tender moment. After the romantic awkwardness slowly dissipated from the scene, Tamako was the first to speak despite her face still being faintly red.

“Since everybody’s just met right now, I know the best way to break the ice!” Tamako offered. “Let’s all go have some mochi!”

***

Outside the mochi shop Tama-ya, owned by Tamako’s family, Kumiko and Reina were snacking on some mochi that Tamako had given them a short while earlier. While Kumiko had tried mochi before and enjoyed it, the taste of freshly-steamed mochi really did put it on another level altogether.

“Did you like the mochi?” Tamako asked. “My family’s been in the mochi business for a lot of generations, so I hope that our recipe fits your tastes!”

The sweetness of the bean paste inside her mochi eagerly tickling her tongue, Kumiko could only give one possible answer. “Mm! It’s excellent! I’ve never tasted better mochi in my life before!”

“The chewy texture of the mochi combined with the delicate sweetness of the azuki bean filling perfectly complement each other, especially in your family’s mochi.” Reina responded. “Though it’s slightly different compared to the mochi I’ve had before, the little touches make it all the more special.”

“Oh yeah!” Tamako exclaimed. “I was so caught up in thinking about mochi that I completely forgot about introducing my friends! Kumiko and Reina, Kanna, Midori and Mochizou. Kanna, Midori and Mochizou, Kumiko and Reina.”

“Nice to meet you.” Kanna greeted. “All of us have been friends since we were kids, so we’re quite close with each other. I think she forgot to mention this, but Tamako and Mochizou are currently a couple.”

Upon hearing Kanna say that without any reservation at all, both Tamako and Mochizou’s faces immediately went red, their feelings for each other spiking up rather obviously once again.

“Kanna-chan, don’t say those things so casually!” Tamako panicked. “You know we’ve only started dating a little while back! There’s no need to announce it in front of people just like that, especially when we’ve just met them!”

“Tamako’s right!” Mochizou added on, following his girlfriend’s lead. “We haven’t really been keeping this a secret from everyone else, and it should’ve been kinda obvious, considering the way we were acting.”

“OK then.” Kanna replied. “It’s just that you two didn’t say it out loud, so I thought that Kumiko and Reina didn’t notice. My mistake.”

“You still haven’t told us why you need our help, Tamako.” Reina directly addressed the mochi heiress. “When we first bumped into you, literally in Kumiko’s case, you seemed to be in a hurry. Were you looking for something important?”

“Yes!” Tamako’s eyes lit up in a fit of urgency. “I’m sorry I forgot to tell you earlier, but the reason I was scurrying around here is because I was finding a lost delivery!”

“A lost delivery?” Reina enquired. “What sort of delivery was it?”

“Well, to tell you guys the truth, it’s kind of embarrassing…” Tamako admitted. “So a while back, I had an idea to promote the mochi shop by ordering a custom mascot costume of a character Kanna drew up named Mochi-kun. The delivery was supposed to arrive today, but I’ve looked all over Usagiyama and I can’t find the truck!”

“Where and when was it supposed to arrive?” Reina asked. “If there were any unusual circumstances that caused the delivery to be delayed, the delivery company is obliged to tell you.”

“It was supposed to arrive an hour ago outside the shop.” Tamako answered, her face right now seeming like she was about to burst into tears. “But I’ve already went around Usagiyama and there’s no truck that looks like it!”

Now Kumiko was starting to get curious. “There might be a chance the driver made a mistake and arrived somewhere else. From my own experience ordering things online, there should be a function on the app where you can track the delivery truck. Did you have a look at it?”

“Let me see…” Tamako took out her phone and scrolled through some menus, prompting Mochizou to go over and look at his girlfriend’s progress. “Ah! Found it! It says that it’s parked about 500 meters from where we are. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

“Then let us advance in that direction!” Dela declared while perching on top of Tamako’s head, causing everyone to realize that he had either disappeared all of a sudden or had been remarkably quiet for the last while. “Onward, brave soldiers!”

“There’s a problem though.” Mochizou pointed out. “To get to where the truck is, we’ll have to cut through a lot of alleyways and underground passages, so the actual distance is about three times that.”

“What are we waiting for?” Midori spoke up. “Let’s get going!”

“Hold up there, you’re stealing my lines!” Dela semi-jokingly exclaimed. “I was the one who said that first! When I make my triumphant return to whence I came from, the first order of business I shall see to is suing you for copyright infringement!”

“You can’t do that!” Midori retorted. “How can you copyright something you said in the first place?”

“In my country, any guardian of the royal family-” Dela was once again interrupted by Kanna’s Timburr throwing its log at him, knocking him off Tamako head-first. Growling, it seemed to have done this without any command from its Trainer at all, but rather out of annoyance to the pompous Sirfetch’d.

Sighing, Tamako picked Dela up and cradled him in her arms before remembering something. “Wait, where’s Shiori and Choi? Why don’t we ask them to help as well? After all, many hands make light work!”

“If I remember correctly, Shori’s at badminton practice and Choi’s went back to her country for the break.” Midori reminded Tamako, who felt Dela squirming around in her arms as he wallowed around in despair.

“Ahh, Lady Choi,” he beckoned at the skies. “Why? O why did you abandon your humble servant when making a return back to our country? Have you forgot about all that I have sacrificed for your family? Oh, woe is I!”

Upon regaining some sense of self-awareness, Dela immediately realized that everyone else had already set off, leaving him rolling on the ground all alone. Picking himself up with his wings, Dela’s chubby body slowed him down as he attempted to catch up with the group via a mix of walking and flying, failing at both simultaneously.

“Puff… pant.” he gasped in exhaustion. “My two favourite ladies have deserted me, and now my companions too! What have I done to deserve such a terrible fate!”

***

Walking down a narrow alleyway that led into yet another underground passage, Kumiko was lost as to why someone would design such a confusing system of roads like these. Though they had started almost half an hour ago, Kumiko felt that they were only walking in circles and not getting anywhere close to their goal at all.

“Gah, at the rate we’re going, we’ll miss the concert!” she exclaimed, causing everyone’s heads to turn towards her. “Would it kill the people who designed this place to at least make it a lot more accessible?”

After realizing that she had spoken out loud once again, Kumiko’s face turned red in embarrassment at how insensitive she had just been. “Sorry. I was just so worked up about the concert that Reina and I are going to later today that I got a bit impatient there.”

“It’s OK. We all have those moments.” Reina consoled her special one.

Walking down into the tunnel, Kumiko could feel the vibrations of various modes of transportation rumbling in the other passageways all around her. As the group progressed through the underground walkway, Kumiko was struck by a still-unanswered question she had as she watched Dela do various stunts on Tamako’s head.

“Tamako, is Dela your Pokémon?” she asked. Dela had previously mentioned he had come from another country, but it wasn’t impossible that Tamako had captured him later on.

“Nuh-uh!” Tamako replied. “He’s still technically a wild Pokémon, though he’s quite well-trained for one. As for my own Pokémon, I do have a Goomy named Mochi. He’s very shy, so he doesn’t like to come out of his Pokéball aside from eating, sleeping, and battling.”

“We actually found Mochi hiding in a tray of well, mochi.” Mochizou admitted. “Tamako was about to put it in the oven when she heard some faint gurgling sounds, and quickly rescued him before he melted. After taking care of him as a wild Pokémon for a while, Tamako officially bought a Pokéball and captured him.”

“Mochi’s actually quite strong in battle, though I’m not the best Trainer around.” Tamako sheepishly admitted, scratching the back of her head with her hand. “I’m too busy running the family mochi shop to do training with Mochi, so he sometimes challenges the stray wild Pokémon that wanders by on his own and does his own thing in battles without me giving him any orders.”

“A Pokémon that makes its own decisions in battle,” Reina mused. “Most of the cases I’ve heard about are of the Trainer training their Pokémon to do so, but it seems like your Goomy is strong and smart enough to make his own decisions.”

Kumiko thought back to when she rescued Hazuki and Midori from a rampaging Poliwrath at the start of her journey along with Marcato and Orpheus. While she clearly recalled given orders at the beginning, she really didn’t remember making any decisions for them other than those. Were Marcato and Orpheus both more savvy and intelligent than her?

Chalking it up to being a novice Trainer with Pokémon already familiar to the frenzy of battle, Kumiko realized the group had already ascended back above ground again, though Tamako was still staring at her phone in confusion.

“That’s strange…” she pondered. “The truck should be parked down the road from here, but I can’t see it anywhere I’m looking.”

“Maybe we should get closer and take a better look?” Midori suggested, to which Tamako responded with a simple nod and began to walk again, everyone following her.

Once the group arrived to the precise location that Tamako’s phone indicated, no truck was in sight from all directions. Turning her head several more times, Tamako was about to concede defeat when Kanna noticed something on her phone screen.

“Tamako, the fine print on the app says that there’s a margin of error of about 50 meters.” Kanna informed the mochi queen. “We should search around the area before calling the delivery company or something.”

Noticing a tunnel for cars leading underground, Kumiko pointed it out to the rest of the group. “Some of us could also search underground. That could be where the truck’s parked. After all, the app didn’t specify what level the truck was on.”

“That’s a good idea!” Tamako agreed. “Now, we should divide ourselves into two groups to search both areas. Who’s with me?”

Mochizou, Midori, and Kanna instinctively gravitated towards Tamako, while Kumiko and Reina stuck by each others’ side. With the groups being more or less decided naturally, the odd one out here was Dela, who was stuck in the middle after Kanna’s Timburr (somehow) knocked him off Tamako’s head without anyone noticing.

Spinning around as he decided which group to join, Dela fell face-first in Kumiko and Reina’s direction as he collapsed from dizziness. Seeing that the Sirfetch’d had chosen which group he would go with, Midori’s Audino kicked him over with a stubby leg, sending him crashing into Kumiko’s arms.

“Ah! It seems that I am once again in the care of a young maiden!” Dela exclaimed as he regained awareness. “With my keen sense of smell, sniffing out the underground for Lady Tamako’s mascot costume won’t be a problem at all!”

“Then it’s settled!” Tamako declared. “Kumiko, Reina, and Dela will search the tunnels, while we’ll look around this neighbourhood! Let’s meet up back at Tama-ya one hour later, OK?”

“Sounds good.” With a wave of hands, Kumiko, Reina, and Dela departed into the passageway that led them below the ground, while Tamako, Midori, Mochizou, and Kanna began to search the streets for any sign of the missing truck.

“Operation Mochi-Go, commence!” Tamako proclaimed, causing Midori and Kanna to sweatdrop at her eccentric tendencies as Mochizou blushed at how cute his girlfriend was.

***

_Twenty-five minutes later…_

“Still no luck, Tamako?” Midori asked.

“Nope.” Tamako replied. “I feel like I’ve been circling this area for a long time, only with nothing to show for it.

“Me neither.” Mochizou added on as he arrived from where he was searching. “I know we’re searching in the right area, but let’s just double-check to make sure.”

“Tamako, look over there.” Kanna pointed to her side. “I think that’s what we’re looking for.”

Gazing over, Tamako could never have guessed the sight that awaited her in a thousand years. Sure, the Mochi-kun costume was there, but it seemed like a drunkard was wearing it, the person inside stumbling around with a complete lack of orientation, crashing into nearby street lamps multiple times without stopping.

What made this surreal sight look even more strange was that the person inside the Mochi-kun costume was surrounded by a herd of Galarian Zigzagoon and Linoone crowding around, preventing any deadlier crashes from happening by serving as some sort of living barrier. Slowly, the Mochi-kun began tottering towards the entrance of a building.

“There it is! Let’s get it back from whoever’s wearing it!” Tamako declared, running after the Mochi-kun, with her friends following suit, ready to reclaim Tamako’s stolen goods.

***

“Dela, are you sure this is the right way?”

“Never fear, young lady!” Dela addressed Kumiko. “My sense of smell is the finest in my kingdom! Now, if you two leave the rest up to me, then I will guide you to the treasure we all desire!”

“You’re guiding us nowhere.” Reina sternly informed Dela. “This is the third time I’m sure we’ve walked past this point, possibly more if my memory serves right. We’re not getting anywhere with you at the helm.”

“Ah, and therein we find the problem!” Dela spread out his wings. “It seems to appear that I am not properly at the helm yet! Young brown-haired maiden, would you mind if I settle yourself on your head and make you my personal mount?”

“OK…” Truth be told, Kumiko’s arms were starting to ache from holding Dela for so long. The Sirfetch’d was really as heavy as he looked, most likely due to constantly eating mochi from Tamako’s family store.

As Dela tried to fly with his wings, he was given a grim reminder that gravity was a harsh mistress indeed, all the weight he gained far outstripping whatever thrust he could generate with his feathered appendages. “A little help here please, young miss?”

Sighing, Kumiko hoisted Dela up onto her head, the Sirfetch’d happily snuggling comfortably in her hair. “Mm, quite different from Lady Tamako’s indeed. Who could have guessed that curly hair would be better for the posterior?”

“Can you see now?” Reina sardonically asked, getting slightly aggravated that Dela was spending more time playing with her special one’s hair than using his alleged prodigious sense of smell to find the truck, however that worked.

“Mighty fine, my dear!” Dela reassured her. “Your friend’s head here is the perfect perching place for a member of the royal court like me! Cushions could be made out of her locks for snuggling in!”

Reina had occasionally thought about rubbing her head against Kumiko’s and touching her desired’s extremely fluffy hair, but Dela’s mere mention of being able to do so right there and then made Reina extremely jealous that a male bird, not her, had gotten that exclusive opportunity first.

Unable to contain her envious anger anymore, Reina waited until Kumiko had got slightly ahead of her, then curled her right hand into a fist and sent it straight into Dela’s plump behind, causing him to have an unscheduled flight without the assistance of his wings.

As Dela struggled to realign himself midair, Kumiko and Reina could hear weird clanking noises coming from above them steadily getting louder. Before any of them could process what was happening, the panel above where Dela was futilely maintaining his altitude gave way, and it came crashing down with a plume of dust.

After the debris settled, Kumiko and Reina heard a creaking sound under the metal panel. The agonizing noise continued until Dela managed to roll out from underneath, somehow managing to survive the combined weight of the Natsuki, Yuuko, and the panel collapsing directly on him.

“How are you still alive after all that?” Reina questioned. It seemed like this Sirfetch’d was no normal bird. “That would have killed any other Pokémon your size ten times over.”

“Ah! It must be because of my royal training!” Dela responded while still laying sideways on the ground. “I’ve faced challenges more excruciating than this in the service of the royal family. ‘Tis but a flesh wound.”

Dela then realized the predicament he was in. “...Though nothing I’ve ever faced has ever prepared me for this. A little help getting up, please?”

***

Following the person wearing the Mochi-kun costume into the building, Tamako, Mochizou, Midori, and Kanna immediately realized what they had walked into was a textile factory/warehouse hybrid that seemed larger on the inside.

Around the building, a swarm of Galarian Zigzagoon and Linoone were rushing around, bringing various materials and supplies to different assembly lines and collecting the end results, with an Obstagoon on a catwalk hanging above observing their work.

Once the last of the Zigzagoon and Linoone surrounding the Mochi-kun costume had entered the building, some of the cohort climbed up Mochi-kun’s arms and back, then knocked the head off to reveal even more Zigzagoon and Linoone inside.

“What the…” Mochizou was astounded by the sheer scale and intensity of this Pokémon-run operation. He thought that making mochi on New Year’s Eve was the most hectic thing imaginable, but everything going on in this factory completely outshone that. Just what was all this hustle and bustle for?

“Look over there!” Midori noted, prompting everyone else to see what she was pointing at. On top of one of the many assembly lines was the head of a Tuba-kun mascot suit. While it seemed mostly intact, several Linoone were manning computerized sewing machines that were in the process of sewing patches of cloth onto the shoddier parts of the mascot suit’s head.

“So that’s what they needed the Mochi-kun suit for.” Kanna exclaimed in dull surprise. “I think I read somewhere once that the instrument line of mascot suits had discontinued production several years ago, so whoever’s behind all this must have needed the body of a mascot suit from the same company to complete their own mascot suit, and it just so happens that Mochi-kun’s body matches.”

“Well done, young detectives!” a voice called out, followed by a sarcastic slow clap. Looking in the direction of the newcomer, the Usagiyama quartet saw a woman about to reach her thirties (Tamako wasn’t sure how she knew that) with long brown hair framing simple wire-frame glasses. Though she wore a simple light blue dress and white flats, the expression she carried in her eyes was anything but.

“Looks like you’ve managed to figure out my plan to infiltrate the League a bit too early!” she announced as if she was admitting defeat. “Too bad I’m not planning on leaving any trace behind! Zigzagoon! Linoone! Obstagoon! Sic ‘em!” The woman then tried her best to cackle wickedly, but all that came out was a strained laugh.

“Wait, what?” Midori exclaimed before the massive horde of black-and-white Pokémon quickly rushed towards them, with the Obstagoon swinging down from its catwalk using chains hanging from the ceiling. Faced with no other choice, Midori sent out her Audino, while she saw Kanna’s Timburr already starting to fend off the mass of Pokémon with its log.

“Stuff them up, Bota!” Mochizou sent out his Minior while trying to dodge the various attacks their opponents were using. “Use Dazzling Gleam!”

Seeing her friends defending themselves from the ongoing assault, Tamako wanted to avoid battling as much as possible due to her own inexperience, but was ultimately forced to join the fray as the wave of Pokémon gradually advanced towards her. “Let’s pound them into mochi, Mochi!”

As soon as Tamako’s Goomy was out on the battlefield, he immediately began to use his amorphous body to its fullest effect, twisting and morphing it to avoid attacks coming his way while knocking opponents left and right through normally impossible maneuvers.

Slowly but surely, Tamako and her friends managed to push the Pokémon horde back to their unknown Trainer, forcing her into a retreat. However, these wins became short-lived when the Obstagoon finally managed to wade through the crowd of it’s pre-evolutions and began attacking Midori’s Audino, effortlessly defeating it with a series of well-placed Cross Chops.

Infused with regained confidence thanks to their leader’s victory, the swarm of Zigzagoon and Linoone began a counterattack, taking back the area that they just lost. The Obstagoon then surged forwards towards Kanna’s Timburr, taking it out with a single Mega Punch.

Mochizou’s Minior Bota tried to intercept the incoming Obstagoon with another Dazzling Gleam, but it was blocked by an Obstruct followed by a Thunder Punch, which managed to crack its rocky outer defenses and expose its core.

“Use Dazzling Gleam again!” Mochizou ordered. A flash of light more radiant than the previous attack washed over the Obstagoon before it could defend itself, dealing even more damage to it. However, even this extra power seemed to not affect the Obstagoon at all, and Bota was down for the count after a second Thunder Punch.

Seeing everyone else’s Pokémon defeated, Tamako knew that they had to find some way to escape out of the building before things got even worse, but seeing a small squad of Zigzagoon block the doors they came in from made her doubt any prospects of going out that way.

But she somehow knew that everything would be all right.

***

“I can sense it! Lady Tamako’s in danger!” Dela suddenly cried out. “I need to be by her side in this perilous moment!”

“Yeah, and we’ll somehow find the mascot costume down the path you’re leading us.” Kumiko snarked back. Following Dela’s instructions, Kumiko and Reina progressed deeper down the tunnels, but didn’t seem to find any trace of the truck or the Mochi-kun costume.

“No, I mean it!” Dela begged. “Please, let me go save her! She needs my help right now, or else this will be the end of her!”

Thinking about whether or not to trust the Sirfetch’d or not after all the missteps he made during their underground jaunt, Reina came to the conclusion that letting him head back to Tamako would make the rest of their journey go much more smoothly. “Fine. You can go. Just don’t cause any trouble on the way up.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” Dela hopped off Kumikos head and onto an exposed air vent before climbing up with surprisingly stout strength. “Fear not, Lady Tamako! I shall come to your rescue!”

***

“Mochi, no!” Tamako cried out as the Obstagoon sent her Goomy flying back to her with a single Ice Punch, freezing him in the process.

“You see, kids?” the woman in front of them taunted. “Resistance is futile! Now, prepare to meet your doom!”

“Not so fast, old hag!” someone cried out from above. Tamako and her friends looked above them and saw Dela on the catwalk, covered in dust and other unknown substances. “I, Dela Mochimazzui, have come here to save my friends and the day! Brick Break!”

“Why, you little bird! I’ll have you-” Before the woman could make any more retaliatory comments towards Dela, he had already leapt off from the catwalk with both his wings glowing a dark red, slamming them into the Obstagoon with full force and knocking it back.

“I’m not finished yet! Close Combat!” Before anyone knew what was going on, Dela had already curled up his wings into fists and sent out a flurry of punches towards the Obstagoon’s general direction, knocking out several unsuspecting Zigzagoon and Linoone in the process.

“And now for the pièce de résistance!” Dela announced, picking up one of the fainted Linoone by the tail before retreating back to where Tamako and her friends were standing. “This Pokèmon may not be as hardy compared to my royal regalia, but it shall suffice in this situation! Meteor Assault!”

His body crackling with a golden energy, Dela surged forward in the blink of an eye and dashed across the room in a streak of gold. The intense power of his attack knocked out all the Zigzagoon and Linoone in the room through sheer wind force before it finally impacted the Obstagoon head-on, causing an explosion to appear.

When the dust cleared, Mochizou saw that all their opponents had fainted, leaving the woman at the opposite side of the room all alone. Walking across the room, Tamako picked up the completely exhausted Dela before heading over with her friends to confront their adversary.

“...And I would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids,” the woman spat. “And your little bird too!”

“Why did you steal the Mochi-kun suit?” Mochizou questioned. “You could’ve made your own with all the resources you have here!”

“...the material.” the woman simply answered. “It’s only made by that one company, so I couldn’t find it anywhere else. Ugh, I’ll have to resort to my backup for the final phase of the plan now. How uncouth for a woman like me, but it’ll give them something to do. At least it’s all for their sake, so they should have a part to play.”

“Plan? What plan?” Mochizou was curious about what this woman was planning. Judging by the size of this operation alone, whatever this woman had up her sleeves clearly went beyond anything he could possibly imagine. However, just when she was about to answer him, Tamako took something out from the pocket of her hoodie and gave it to the woman.

“Here, have some mochi.” Tamako offered. “I know that you stole the Mochi-kun suit, but it seems like you ultimately wanted to make some people you cared about happy. The suit belongs to me, but I believe that mochi can solve all the problems in the world, so that’s why I gave you some to make you feel less down. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about this. They won’t believe it anyways.”

“...Thank you.” the woman replied, recalling the Obstagoon back into a Pokèball before doing the same with the other Zigzagoon and Linoone, all while eating the mochi Tamako gave her. “I’ll give you back the suit, but I still owe you one for stealing it in the first place. If you need help with anything, call the associated number for this building and ask for Yamanaka, Sawako Yamanaka. Until then, I need to get going for a concert featuring my five lovely ex-students. See you!”

After the woman left the building, Tamako picked up the Mochi-kun suit now laying on the floor, Dela now having regained enough strength to perch on her head again. “It’s kind of hard to believe that a mascot suit could cause this much trouble. Oh well, let’s tell Kumiko and Reina that we’ve found it!”

***

“Well, that seemed a little bit anticlimactic on your end.” Kumiko commented to Tamako after they all gathered back at Tamaya. According to the mochi queen herself, Tamako’s group had found the suit in a trash can guarded by a gang of Galarian Zigzagoon, Linoone, and Obstagoon, and Dela arrived in the nick of time after all their Pokèmon had been wiped out by the Obstagoon to defeat it. “At least Dela wasn’t lying to us.”

“Like I said, my intuition never fails me!” Dela triumphantly declared. “Thank you very much, Lady Kumiko and Lady Reina, for allowing me to rescue my dear compatriots. I can never repay this debt to you.”

“Well then, we’d better get going.” Reina told everyone else. “Thank you all for your hospitality. If we come back here in the future, we’ll be sure to visit you all again.”

“See you!” Kumiko and Reina said in unison, waving goodbye to their newfound friends, who waved back in response.

“Man, what was that woman who stole the Mochi-kun costume going on about?” Mochizou wondered. “Has she got a few screws loose or something?”

“Even if she has, mochi can still solve it.” Tamako replied. “After all, it’s soft, white, gentle, smells good, and warms you up! What person wouldn’t feel better after eating it?”


End file.
